


Everything like you wouldn't expect

by sebviathan



Category: Frozen (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Anxiety Disorder, Cheating, F/M, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Loneliness, M/M, hans is using anna, hansoff is endgame, olaf isn't a snowman don't worry, sven is a dog, the kristanna is ambiguous
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-21
Updated: 2014-03-17
Packaged: 2018-01-09 12:44:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 18,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1146144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sebviathan/pseuds/sebviathan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Anna and Kristoff had both been alone most of their lives only to happen upon each other when the former was finally allowed out of the house and into public school--it seemed like fate, really. Not necessarily romantic, but fate. </p><p>It also seemed, oddly, like fate when Anna met the guy who would be her boyfriend--Hans. He was simply too irresistible. To all three of them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> In case the tags weren't clear enough, here's how it goes: ambiguous Kristoff/Anna will be present, but it's just feelings and no actual romantic relationship happens. Hans/Anna happens but only in the form of a relationship like the one in canon. Hans/Kristoff is what everything adds up to.
> 
> The prologue is mainly background and the events leading up to the real story, and Hans doesn't actually make an appearance yet, oops. But don't worry, you'll see plenty of him in the whole rest of the story.
> 
> Also note that the cities mentioned in this story are all real, and I've tried my best to research and make sure that everything that happens in this story is completely plausible. Instead of Anna's family being from Arendelle, in this AU they're from Arendal, the city that Arendelle was actually based off of.

Moving to America was supposed to be a new start, a way to get away from your old life and build a better one in the Land of Opportunity.

Honestly, as Anna would think after she grew up a bit and realized what had been going on, it wasn't quite as a bad of an idea as it seemed to be. Her older sister had a severe panic attack at age ten when they moved, but if she was that easily susceptible to panic and anxiety, she probably would have had something to spark the sudden isolation at some point back in Norway, anyway.

Elsa used to seem completely normal, though. When they lived in Arendal, she and Anna were extremely close, and she never had any bouts of anxiety whatsoever. They would go off on their own and talk to the other people in the neighborhood and sometimes just sit on the docks and watch men fish. She'd always been Anna's best friend _—_ her only friend, really.

And then practically out of nowhere, their parents had decided that they weren't well-off enough and that they would find more success in America. The new and vastly different environment had been such a shock for Elsa that she began hyperventilating and having a fit sometime on their first day, and then refused to talk to anyone for a full week. For the most part, she hadn't wanted to talk to anyone, either. She just... shut everyone out. She stayed up in her room and only ever really left for meals, and no amount of coercing could get her to do anything with Anna again.

Her parents were sympathetic, though not enough to make an effort for Anna's social skills. They were both mostly fluent in English but hadn't quite integrated into American culture yet, so neither of them thought it was important that she go make friends and learn how to live as an American. That, and they didn't like talking to the locals.

So they had both Anna and Elsa homeschooled. A professional was hired to come and give them both private lessons a few days a week, and even then, it wasn't together, so Anna still rarely saw her older sister. She was hardly even ever allowed outside _—_ it wasn't safe for a little girl out in busy streets, her mother told her. Though when she asked her teacher, she said that Minneapolis was one of the safer large cities. Her parents still refused.

Sometimes, Anna's teacher would feel particularly sorry for the fact that she wasn't allowed past the front steps of their apartment and bring her some kind of candy. They weren't overly close, but she tried to give her presents on her birthday and Christmas as well (Elsa too, just to make sure the parents didn't get angry about her playing favorites). It was often books. And near the end of the year that she would have to leave (because she wasn't qualified to teach past a 5th grade curriculum) she suggested to Mr. and Mrs. Andersen that they buy at least Anna a laptop. It would help her do schoolwork more efficiently, she told them. And she would be able to learn all she wanted about American life.

Lucky for her, they believed it was a good idea and bought her one. Elsa got one too, just to see if perhaps she would be able to find an outlet through the internet, but Anna never had any idea if Elsa even used it.

So Anna may have not had any real interaction with many other people, but she managed to figure out how forums worked and spent a great deal of time, especially when she wasn't supposed to, on the internet. Truthfully, she spent more time dicking around than doing her homework on it. But it was the best alternative she had to real human interaction, and she didn't hesitate to make the most of it.

Around the time that Anna was sixteen _—_ which would make Elsa nineteen, having finished her homeschooling and and started taking college courses online _—_ their parents finally gave in to Anna's request to let her go to public school.

When she asked them why the sudden change of heart, her father said, "We realized we had been shutting you out and away for too long. However will you learn how to get a job and live on your own if you don't get a few years of practice? We want Elsa to start trying to get out of her isolation, too. I honestly can't even believe we've let it go this long... So that's why we're going to wean her into it. Move to a smaller community where she won't have quite as much of a problem as Minneapolis."

And so almost abruptly as they had moved out of Arendal, they were packing up their things and moving to a small city _—_ less than a thousand people, even _—_ farther up north in Minnesota. A nice little town called Fertile where the majority of the people were of Norwegian descent and a lot of them even spoke it.

Well, it seemed more abrupt than it actually was. To Anna, anyway. There were weeks of talking it over with Elsa and getting her to agree and be comfortable with it. Meanwhile, despite how excited she was to finally be going to public school with other kids her age, and how she couldn't stop talking or thinking about it, it all somehow went by in a blur. By June, they were all in a car and driving to their new house _—_ which was two stories not counting the attic, their mother told them. Anna insisted she tell her the address, too, and she repeated that in her head impatiently the whole four-hour drive. Occasionally, she glanced over at Elsa and smiled too widely for her own good, sometimes getting a smile and a few words in return.

"Don't you think it'll be just  _great_  to live in a country house?" Anna couldn't help but ask at one point, mostly talking to her sister. "I mean _—_ so much  _land_  to just do whatever with... ooh, we could make a garden! Or maybe get a horse to ride around town. I heard that in small towns like Fertile they don't care if you ride your horse places. Can we get a horse, Mom?"

There was a sigh of what could either have been annoyance or amusement _—_ Anna couldn't tell _—_ and her mother saying from the passenger seat: "We'd have to build a stable."

"Or hire someone to do it," her father added. They could more than likely afford it, considering how both of them had managed to land successful jobs once they moved to America.

"You're not helping, Gunnar."

"I don't see any reason we can't have a horse. I had one as a boy, after all."

"I've always wanted a horse." For a moment, none of them realized that it was Elsa who said that. And when they did, it felt like a miracle, though they tried not to act too obnoxiously about it. "Back when we lived in Arendal, I really wanted one, but I knew that we couldn't because we lived near the docks and had nowhere to keep it. Can we please get one?"

It was pretty much settled, at that point, that they would be getting one. Anna was both happy about the horse and somewhat frustrated that Elsa basically got whatever she wanted because of how hard it was for her to be social or get used to a new environment. Yes, it was bad to be jealous when her sister had it so much worse, but... Elsa was essentially the favorite _—_ no, not even "essentially." Just  _The favorite_. Their parents paid far more attention to her and almost never had time for their other daughter.

Any resentment Anna felt towards Elsa, though, always disappeared fairly quickly. All she really wanted was for her sister to stop shutting her out and to start socializing at least somewhat normally _—_ and of course, she would always have to make herself forget that Elsa was the reason neither of them were ever able to go to public school. Because the anxiety wasn't  _really_  her fault.

* * *

 

Once they arrived at the house, she quite honestly forgot all about Elsa and everything else in favor of hopping out of the car and running inside as soon as she could. There was more than enough land out back for a horse and a garden and whatever else they wanted _—_ it seemed to end at a cluster of trees that were very far from the house. And the house was white and taller than she could have imagined, and she didn't care at all that the paint was peeling off in places because there were five whole rooms and three bathrooms and a kitchen with two ovens.

Most everything was unpacked within a few hours. Re-building their beds, though, was going to take more time, and while their father did that, Anna decided that she would go walk around their property. Well, if her parents gave her permission. Which they did. But she liked to think that she would have had the guts to do it anyway if they had said no.

Most of it was just plain grass, but it was just so refreshing to be outside for once. Not even outside an apartment in a big city, but  _outside_. In virtually untainted air that smelt like rain and... other things she couldn't even identify. Because she hadn't  _really_  been outside since she was seven years old.

Anna most certainly did not resist the urge to run and jump and twirl in the grass, and there wasn't a single shit in her to give that her parents or sister might see her from the window, or that a neighbor might wonder what her cheering and yelling was and come investigate.

And inevitably she fell flat on her face at some point, but the excitement was too much for her to care about the pain. So Anna stood up and hastily brushed her clothes and face off before continuing, walking further until she got to the trees that lined the property, and then even past that. For several minutes she wound her way through a small forest, still not caring whatsoever about consequences, and kept walking until she found a barrier.

The first one was past the wooded area and in another field entirely _—_ a brick wall. She didn't know what it was supposed to be separating other than two differently elevated sections of land, so she walked along it. This was really beginning to be like an adventure, exactly what she'd always wanted _—_

"You can't be here."

It was only the suddenness of the voice that startled her, for whoever said it actually spoke quite softly _—_ Anna turned around at once and saw a large boy (though his face was a bit baby-ish and he couldn't have been much older than her) approaching her. His hair was blonde and long and adorably messy, and even though it was the beginning of summer, he was wearing a sweater. He also had a large dog at his feet, who was sitting there obediently and ready.

He was frowning, though nothing about his expression really seemed malevolent. It was like he was used to this kind of situation.

Before she could say anything, the boy tilted his head and asked, "Who are you, anyway? I don't recognize you from school."

"Oh _—_ uh, hi, I'm Anna!" she said at once, jumping a little where she stood and smiling probably more than she should have as she extended her hand. "My family just moved in _—_ in the house on the other side of the woods. We used to live in a big city and I've never really gotten outside  _ever_  so I was just walking around and I ended up here _—_ "

"Yeah, I've been telling my dad we should put in an actual fence here," he was finally able to cut her off. Though he wasn't as annoyed as he should have been about her talking so fast and being so...  _friendly_ , he figured, was the best way to put it. "I'm sorry _—_ I'm Kristoff," he said, shaking her hand. And  _damn_ , his hands were really rough. "I've lived here since I was about ten, and it's a good town to live in if you like having only the options of everyone being completely in your business and being totally alone, I guess."

He talked about it like he preferred the latter, and honestly, Anna didn't get it. But then she supposed that not everyone was as starved for real human interaction as she was. And Kristoff probably had absolutely no idea how excited she was to just be talking to another person _—_ someone her age, no less, and even better _—_ _a cute boy_.

"I'll take people being in my business over loneliness any day, honestly," she admitted unabashedly, leaning back slightly on the brick wall. "You have  _no_  idea how isolated I've basically been my whole life."

Kristoff made a face halfway in-between a smirk and a grimace. "Uh... I could probably say otherwise _—_ but that's a different story for a different day. It's getting dark and I need to cook my dinner, and you should be getting home. If your parents are as strict about where you are as they sound, they won't like you being out too long."

With that, he gave her a small parting wave and started walking back in the direction of his house (which actually wasn't so far down the property _—_ Anna didn't know why she couldn't see it before). She heard him say " _Come on, Sven_ " while she watched him leave and could only guess that that was the dog's name. Kristoff walked like he was always carrying something heavy in his arms, and Anna decided that she liked the way it looked as he trudged across ground that wasn't difficult.

But he was right. She really did need to go back home.

Grinning to herself (definitely not thinking about Kristoff's cute face and butt,  _nope_ ) and swinging her arms at her sides, Anna found her way back to her back door and faced the "You shouldn't have been out so long"s with ease.

Early in the afternoon the next day, Anna acted on an impulsive decision and walked to Kristoff's property again. It wasn't too much later that he found her sitting on the brick wall at the edge of the yard, kicking her legs and smiling like she'd been waiting for him to show up.

"I guess property lines don't mean much to you, do they?" He didn't seem frustrated or annoyed so much as a bit amused. Okay, maybe a little frustrated. His dog was by his side again, and he had a thinner sweater this time.

"I wanted to talk to you again," Anna told him like it was a perfectly good explanation _—_ she couldn't really care about anything when Kristoff was the first friend she'd ever had outside of the internet.  _Were_  they friends yet? _—_ she hoped so. "How did you even know I was out here? _—_ I saw you coming towards me as soon as you came outside."

"Your, ah _—_ your red hair kind of made you pretty noticeable," he said with a cough, slightly embarrassed. "Most people just knock on the front door, you know."

"Yeah, well. I didn't know exactly where the front of your house even was, so don't blame me."

Kristoff sighed. "Fair enough. Why do you even want to talk to me?"

Anna almost had to keep herself from laughing as she tried to figure out a way to answer that honestly without it being too weird. "Yesterday... when I said that I've been isolated my whole life? I was serious. Like,  _literally_  isolated. You're one of the first people outside my family that I've talked to in person in about... nine years."

Eyebrows raised in pure curiosity (and a bit of sympathy, probably), Kristoff stepped forward and sat down on the brick wall next to her, the dog jumping up with him.

"Alright, I  _have_  to hear about this."

So Anna told him, and she didn't spare a single detail that she could remember because this was her first time ever saying all of this out loud to someone else. Kristoff had no idea how she even managed to go so long without taking a breath, and he had to stay focused to understand all that she was saying because it came out so fast. She probably didn't even realize.

"So they're only putting you into public school  _now_?" he said incredulously after she was finished, one eyebrow heavily raised. "That... wow. That's really awful. And about your sister... I mean, I don't have any siblings so I don't _really_  know what it's like, but that sucks. Do you think she'll ever start being social again?"

"I don't know. I hope so." Anna harumphed and leaned her face into her hand for a moment, then thought to ask, "What about you?"

"Hm?"

"You said you were isolated your whole life, too. How?"

 _Oh._  Now that Anna had told her story, his was honestly not nearly as impressive. And he could, indeed, retract his earlier statement that he thought he could understand how Anna felt. But at the same time, he suddenly felt an extreme doubt in Anna's trust and his walls going back up. Maybe it wasn't  _quite_  the most tragic of pasts, and he couldn't compare to Elsa, but he had never told anyone before and he wasn't about to tell it to some girl he'd met yesterday who didn't even know you were supposed to stay out of other people's yards.

"I, uh... don't think I want to tell you that just yet," he resigned to saying. It was almost as though his voice hardened as he said it, along with his expression.

"Wait, what?" Anna frowned deeply and made an exaggerated motion with her arms in confusion. "I just basically told you my whole life story! The least you could do is tell me part of why you seem so lonely."

Lonely?  _Really_? Did she just have to pull  _that_  card?

"Okay, for the record," _—_ Kristoff shifted away to make room to face her and make sharp hand gestures _—_ "I am not lonely. I'm  _alone_. There's a difference. And the difference is that I choose to be this way, and I'm not starving for human contact like you are _—_ _you're_  the lonely one. And if you really want to know, I used to live in Norway too, alright? I was an orphan there until I was adopted. Now let's leave it at that."

Part of Anna wanted to say something along the lines of  _"Well, if you're going to talk to me like_ that _,"_  and then leave dramatically _—_ but she was too compassionate for her own good. She too easily saw where she had clearly hurt him, and she didn't have it in her to just leave. That, and Kristoff was right about her being starving for human contact, and she wasn't going to leave it so soon.

"...Sorry," she told him, and she meant it. And she tried to not let her face go so red or cry just from being nearly yelled at.

He sighed and turned to look the other way, but that didn't keep him from fuming on the inside. Then again, a lot of things made him feel that way. He'd never been able to help it. And he really didn't want Anna to have to be on the receiving end of his grief (which he should honestly just  _let go_  of, but he was too stubborn for that), so he stood up and motioned for Sven to come with him.

"I. Um. I kind of got stuff to do," he said, only partially looking her in the eye before turning away completely. "Chopping firewood and all that. But I'll, uh _—_ see you around, Anna."

* * *

 

She still seemed pretty upset when she finally walked away, but Kristoff wasn't so socially impaired to not know that basically  _anyone_  would be. He sighed and scratched behind Sven's ears when he got to his back porch and sat down. His elkhound pressed his wet nose into Kristoff's neck and breathed pointedly.

"Yeah, Sven, I know I kind of fucked up."

" _Damn right you did_ ," he muttered to himself in a deeper voice that he always imagined Sven would speak with... if he spoke.

To Kristoff, though, he really did _—_ he just needed his owner to speak _for_  him. He swore he wasn't crazy. Then again, he never had anyone to swear that to except his own adoptive parents, who didn't even think it was all that weird. Probably because they were also really weird, but that was besides the point. Sven gave him looks just as expressive as any human being could, and he was far more attentive than people tended to be. He even seemed to understand what was going on most of the time.

"But hey, it's not my fault that she decided to tell her life story to a stranger _—_ I'm not obligated to tell her anything."

" _But now she might be too afraid of you to come back_."Sven tilted his head and blinked once.

"Eh, I can live with that." And then with the look that Sven gave him just then, Kristoff ruffled the fur on his back and sighed again. "But I guess I don't really want to, do I?"

Anna  _was_  very pretty. And she had probably been nicer to him than anyone he'd ever talked to in his entire life. She was funny and sweet and she seemed to have liked him right off the bat... Everyone else was just too annoying. Or cruel. Because that's just how kids were _—_ and no one wants to understand you when you don't talk to anyone and live a ways away from the rest of the town and talk to your dog.

So sure, he was getting a crush. That was the one thing his stubbornness didn't keep him from admitting to himself whatsoever. But it had only been two days, and this was a girl who literally had never had any other friends. And now she might be afraid of him. Though Kristoff couldn't quite find it in him to make the first move and apologize _—_ not right now, especially. He hadn't even lied when he'd told her that he had work to do, and he really should have gotten right on that.

The next day, Anna didn't show up on the brick wall. Disappointment crept through him, but he accepted it right then and didn't plan on doing anything about it until later that afternoon, when an odd series of events brought him to her front door with a glass tray full of some kind of... stuffing? casserole? He wasn't really sure.

Unsurprisingly, Anna was the one who answered the door, clearly having run all the way down the stairs as soon as she'd heard knocking. Kristoff imagined that she'd never been allowed to answer the door until now.

Her mouth stretched into a brief smile and then into a look of confusion. "Kristoff? Why are you here? I mean _—_ it's not that I don't want to see you or anything, I just... didn't think you'd want to see me."

"Yeah, about that." Kristoff breathed a nervous laugh and looked down for a moment. "I'm sorry. I'm just not really that open of a person, I guess.  _And_  I'm actually here because my mom found out that we had neighbors and got mad at me for not telling her, and she insisted on making you guys some 'welcome to the neighborhood' food and having me bring it over. Uh _—_ here," he handed it over, a grimace on his face. "You really don't have to eat it, it's probably gross _—_ "

"Anna? Who's that?"

A man who looked somewhat withered but also shared a lot of Anna's facial features _—_ whom he could only assume was her father _—_ walked in and stood a bit behind her.

"Oh _—_ this is Kristoff, dad," she told him, stepping aside and gesturing to him. "He's my friend. And he brought over food that his mom made for us to welcome us to the neighborhood."

"Well, don't be rude, Anna _—_ invite him in. Do you want to stay for dinner, Kristoff?"

"I _—_ um. Sure, if that's okay _—_ "

"Of course it is. Come on in."

He seemed like a fairly nice man. His moustache and hair reminded Kristoff of one of the men who worked at his orphanage.

Anna was happy to have him over, though worried that Elsa might get too anxious with a new person in the new house all of a sudden. She seemed okay, though. She even talked to him a little, asking him his name and if he used to live in Norway and what the town was like (at which point he actually began speaking in Norwegian instead of English, which cheered her up considerably). And instead of being too stubborn to tell her more than the basics like he'd been with Anna, he heartily described the town he used to live in. Then again, those particular details didn't seem like something he found too person to talk about, and it made Elsa happy to listen to him talk about it.

Coincidentally, the casserole turned out to not be that bad. Anna's parents liked it, at least.

"Mm _—_ tell your parents that they're free to invite us over for dinner  _anytime_ ," her father said through a bite of it.

Most of the table laughed, though Kristoff's  _"NO"_  alarm was going off in his head _—_ he really didn't want other people over. His parents were weird and Sven might get upset and he really preferred his house not smelling at all like other people.

By the time everyone was finished it was getting dark out, and Hans knew he'd probably be in trouble if he didn't get home and do his chores soon. And when he got home, he was bombarded with the inevitable slew of questions about how the family was and if he'd finally made a friend.

He could confirm that, in fact, he did.

* * *

 

Somewhat disappointingly to both of them (though neither of them knew about the other), Anna and Kristoff continued on as friends and nothing more. Though it was a little ambiguous at times, as Kristoff really couldn't help the way he looked at her when she did something particularly cute, and Anna couldn't help but notice.

But Anna was too full of self-doubt to say anything. Besides, Kristoff didn't seem like he had much room for other people in his life. He clearly liked to be alone and, even though they talked almost every day and both officially became each other's best (though only) friends, he was pretty reserved. He preferred being on his own with just Sven than with other people, and he even preferred doing hard labor to sitting down and talking. And he made that pretty clear.

What she wasn't seeing was how Kristoff tried to make it obvious that he was excluding  _her_  from the mix. Though he couldn't get too wracked up about it, as the crush only really seemed to be present when he was around her. After she left, she wasn't on his mind all that much. Maybe if he saw something that reminded him of her, at which he'd smile and then hide it, but he was just as independent as he'd ever been. The only one he really needed was Sven.

So they were just fine being best friends. Best friends was pretty great, actually. (Although sometimes Kristoff had to assure Sven that he and Anna were best friends in a  _completely_  different way than they were.)

Kristoff occasionally came over during the summer, but he still didn't want anyone at his house, so they kept it that way. They either talked in one of their yards or went walking up the road and around the town (he didn't want to do that too much but Anna was eager and wanted to see the whole town before school started), inadvertently meeting and talking to a couple of the other kids.

When September came around, the two of them were suddenly even more of polar opposites than before _—_ Kristoff was in a perpetual grumpy mood in his dread for sophomore year to start, and Anna couldn't contain her excitement.

"Trust me, public school isn't as great as you think it will be," he warned her several times in the week prior.

"You say that because you've been going to American public school for years. I  _never_  have. Lighten up, will you?"

"Hmph."

There were several more conversations very similar to that one at least once a day, even on the morning of, when Anna's parents offered to drive them both to the school. By then, Anna was squirming and jumping in her seat and almost hyperventilating in her nervous excitement.

"Try to calm down once we get out of the car, okay?" Kristoff said when they were about halfway there. "You probably don't want your reputation to be 'that overly-eager spaz girl.' And trust me, everyone gets a reputation here. And it  _will_  matter. Everyone in the town knows each other and  _everyone_  goes to the same school because there's only like 400 students overall _—_ and that's  _including_  the kids that have to drive twelve miles from the town over."

She nodded and did seem to make an effort to sit still and keep her excitement in, but she wasn't really taking his words to heart. Who cared about a reputation? She would finally be able to make friends (other than Kristoff, that is) and meet more people.

She would finally be allowed to  _live_.


	2. Pretty-boy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> /I knew it,/ he decided. /Fucking narcissist./ Though it really wasn't a decision because he still didn't know how he should feel about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shit, I'm so sorry it took so long--I made the horrible decision of adding more things to my daily schedule, AKA making a Hans RP blog. If you want to have plenty of Hansoff content to fill your needs in between chapter updates, my Hans tumblr is twinkprincehans.

Having watched as many high school comedies as she could before the school year started, Anna actually completely expected the amount of stares that she got as soon as she walked onto the campus. People weren't often kind to the new kids, especially in close-knit communities like this, as she had observed through practically every single tv show and movie ever—but she wasn't too worried about that. She had Kristoff for a friend, and she could deal with any possible bullies for now with just him. All she really cared about was finally going to school, regardless of how she might be treated at first.

"They're surprised to see someone walking with me," Kristoff told her once they were inside the cafeteria, and with an air of bitterness towards everyone who threw multiple looks at them.

He wondered what their faces would look like if he was holding her hand, and briefly smirked to himself at the thought. Who would ever guess that the weird guy who never left his house or talked to anyone would come back to school with a girlfriend? But then he had to remind himself that Anna probably didn't think of him that way and that she was in fact  _not_  his girlfriend.

He then wondered if she'd be willing to pretend, if only so he could get back at some people. And then he felt bad for even thinking about asking her to basically let him use her.

Kristoff eventually decided that he could just live with being the outcast and not to think anymore of it. He had a real friend—a  _best_  friend—now, so what did it matter? At the very least, he wouldn't necessarily be known at  _the kid who never talks to anyone_  anymore. Considering how high school students generally were, even, they would probably end up starting rumors that the two of them were dating after a few months, anyway.

Though that wasn't exactly something to look forward to. When rumours started, hardcore teasing started, and kids could really be cruel.

"This is a lot smaller than I imagined," Anna was saying, looking around at the cafeteria with probably way too much awe—but Kristoff didn't stop her, as he figured he should let her have her fun. "Then again, I've only ever seen shows where they go to high schools in big cities, so I guess it makes sense. Ooh—is that a vending machine?"

"What?—oh, yeah—" Kristoff started to answer, but Anna was already walking off in that direction and was too far away to hear him. So he held that thought and sighed, briefly debating whether he should go over there at all before resigning himself and following her.

"I've never seen one in real life before," she told him, reaching out to touch the glass and turning for a second to smile at him. "This is  _so cool_..."

"It's a vending machine," he said flatly. "You get snacks from it. It's not that interesting."

"But—I've never seen one before! Oh—do I have any money?" Frantically checking her pockets and her backpack, she eventually pulled out a wallet and drew out a twenty from what seemed to be a stack of them.  _Shit, how rich_ is _her family?_  Kristoff wondered. "Ha, sweet—"

Before she could try to stick the bill in the slot, though, Kristoff gently pushed her hand away from the machine. "It won't accept twenties. Just ones."

"But... all I have are twenties," Anna pouted, looking rather dejected as she put her money away. It was enough to illicit the kind of sympathy in Kristoff that made him roll his eyes and sigh and reach into his own pocket.

"Here." He handed her a one with a slight grimace and tried to ignore the odd looks they were getting, especially from those behind her who were clearly waiting to get a snack as well. "Try to hurry up so we can go get our packets with our schedules."

Anna gave him a look of pure gratitude, and frankly, it was rewarding enough that Kristoff didn't even feel as though he needed her to pay him back. He had to promise himself that he wouldn't become one of those people who just keeps giving and giving if only to get a smile in return. Even if it was only Anna. He'd already learned that lesson.

Luckily she seemed to either already know how vending machines worked or was a quick learner, so he didn't have to walk her through it and risk even more odd looks. At this rate people were probably going to think that she was either crazy or mentally deficient in some way and that Kristoff was being paid to escort her around or something. And though there was nothing he could do about his own reputation at this point, he didn't want Anna's to be damaged this early.

She ended up with a bag of fruit snacks that she was all too excited to eat, despite definitely having had fruit snacks before.

With the amount of students enrolled in the high school portion of Fertile-Beltrami being as small as it was, each grade was split only between an A and B group—and as Kristoff had been sure of, both he and Anna were in the A group because both of their last names fell in the first half of the alphabet.

"U.S. History?" Anna raised an eyebrow, looking up from the first period timeslot on her schedule. "I already went through basically everything about that with homeschooling."

"Damn, doesn't homeschool go faster and more advanced than public school, usually?" Kristoff remembered hearing somewhere once that kids who were homeschooled generally turned out smarter. That was one of the reasons he had put forth to convince his parents to take him out of public school a while ago, even. But they had decided that even if they could afford it, he needed social interaction. So here he still was.

"I guess so," she shrugged. "Looks like I'll just be a little ahead of everyone else." And that was good for her, the both of them silently agreed, since being the new kid was hard enough. With little to no foreseeable difficulties with her schoolwork to add onto social issues, she was off to a nice start.

After a few moments of silence, Kristoff made an impulsive decision, partially just to get away from all the other people, and tapped Anna's shoulder. "Hey, we still have about ten minutes before the bell rings—want me to show you around the school? Like, where the bathrooms are and everything."

Shit, he hoped that hadn't sounded too awkward. But he realized that they would be walking around together all day anyway and needed another legitimate reason to show her around so he didn't sound like he just really wanted to be alone with her, which would have been  _really_ weird—

"Yeah, sure!" she agreed, and just like that, she was ready to go and already walking toward the cafeteria exit.

Her perpetual enthusiasm would one day be the death of him.

* * *

 

"A bit eager on the first day, are we?" said the history teacher as Kristoff and Anna were the first ones to walk in and sit down. His tone was more good-natured than anything, though, and he seemed to appreciate that there were already students in his classroom ready to go.  
"A lot, actually," Anna replied, already deciding that she liked this teacher. He seemed like one of those middle-aged men who were ridiculously nice and actually genuinely enjoyed teaching. Meanwhile Kristoff gave an awkward smile and said nothing, dropping his backpack off at a desk closer to the back of the room than the front and expecting Anna to follow suit with the desk next to his.

He'd had Mr. Steffes once before for history in the seventh grade (as their small school required the smallest amount of teachers possible that were qualified to teach several levels of the same subject), and he knew that he was an okay teacher. A bit irritable of a person, but a good teacher. He did remember, though, getting particularly angry at him when he was twelve for what were probably very stupid reasons.

Other students entered within the next few minutes in pairs and groups, only one or two of them alone. It was uncommon to see, since everyone in Fertile grew up around the same group of kids from their very first day of kindergarten, so rarely anyone was left on their own, even for a short period of time. People stuck together, here.

As they piled in, Kristoff scooted his desk closer to Anna's and pointed them all out by name and reputation, just so she could get an idea of whom she would be dealing with.

"That guy with the black sweater—that's Nick. Total asshole. And he's dating Evanna, who's also a total asshole. And she's best friends with the girl to her left, Astrid—you know those typical groups of girls who are really bitchy but also fashionable? That's basically them. Oh—that's Sebastian and he's not too bad, but he thinks he's hot shit just because he's athletic and on the soccer team. The other two guys behind him are also on the team and they mostly just follow him around as far as I know."

Kristoff was actually having fun with this, though once, the door opened to reveal a single person, and he stared and said nothing.

Getting only silence from him, Anna nudged Kristoff hard and gestured to the auburn-haired guy walking in on his own and getting a seat a row ahead of them and a couple seats over—"Ooh, who's  _he_?"

"...I don't know," he finally told her, shaking himself out of it. Out of  _what_ , exactly, he had to wonder, and he could only come to the conclusion that this guy was simply just a very pretty guy. Whoever he was, there was a quality about him that made him stand out at first glance, and he couldn't quite pinpoint what it was. "I don't recognize his face. He must be new here, too."

"He's  _really hot_ ," Anna said unabashedly, though hushed enough that she was pretty sure only Kristoff could hear. Which he did, and at which he immediately felt flustered and weird in three different ways—partially because honestly, he agreed. Unlike most of the guys who lived around here, he seemed to be dressed semi-formal: nice jeans and a button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled halfway up, a vest, and... an ascot. At least that's what he was pretty sure it was. But who the hell even wore ascots anymore, let alone to a high school in a town like this?

As though he had somehow heard his thoughts, the auburn-haired guy twisted in his seat and looked in their direction, giving a brief smile before turning away.

"Oh— _I think he just smiled at me_ _—_!" Anna whispered furiously to him with several sharp nudges to his arm, clearly very excited. It was slightly annoying how she seemed to be romantically interested in this guy already without even knowing his name, but just his face and probably also the fact that the pants he wore were very tight on his butt.

He also didn't have the heart to tell her that the guy seemed more to have smiled at  _him_.

In another minute or so, the bell rang and class had officially started, so Kristoff and Anna reluctantly scooted their desks back into their proper places as the teacher ordered.

"I've had all of you once before, so you should all know my name," he said once he stood up, looking like he was making an effort to hold eye contact with everyone. "But for those of you who are forgetful, as well as the two students whom I've been told are brand new, I'm Mr. Steffes. I don't plan on making your lives harder than they already are—I just want to teach history, and if you don't want to learn it, that's fine with me.

"I can also only assume that the two—not just one, but _two_  this year, wow—new ones on my roster are matching the faces in here I don't recognise," Mr. Steffes went on. "All the rest of you have known each other a long time, so why don't the new students stand up and introduce themselves?"

Unlike how students generally seemed to be on television, Anna rose from her seat at once, eager to be the center of attention (which she had literally never been in her entire life), and fumbled, hitting her hip in an odd way and nearly falling over. She ignored the concerned expression from the teacher, though.

"Oh—no, I'm fine. I mean, I'm Anna—that's my name."  _God._  Could she  _be_  any more awkward? With no idea what else to say, she gave an embarrassed smile and an uncomfortable noise and avoided looking at anyone else as she sat back down.

"Do you want to tell us a little about yourself, Anna?" said the teacher with an urging eyebrow raise.  _Oh, it's not done,_  she thought as she made to stand up again—but Mr. Steffes held a hand out and said "You don't have to stand up again, it's fine. Just tell us a little brief summary about yourself.

"Um, well, I lived in Norway until I was six, and then I moved to Minneapolis," was the first thing she thought to say. So far, not  _too_  awkward. "But I guess it's the same deal with a lot of the people here. And, um... my best friend is Kristoff, who is sitting right next to me." She gestured to him and he grimaced at her acknowledgement, not sure how to feel about the looks—"And... I use the internet a lot."

With that as her closer, quite a few students laughed or at least snickered under their breath, and neither she nor Kristoff were entirely sure if it was supposed to be a good or bad laugh. The latter, however, noticed that the other new kid didn't laugh, but just smirked.

"Ah, okay." The look on the teacher's face was similar to that of Kristoff when he had slowly been getting used to Anna's quirkiness. He imagined a lot of people would end up feeling the same way about her. "And you?"

He turned to look at the boy (who really couldn't even be called a  _boy_  despite the fact they all had to be around 15 or 16—he had sideburns that nearly reached his jaw already, for God's sake), who had already stood up and was straightening his ascot.

"I'm Hans Eriksen, and I—uh, also moved from out of the country." He glanced at Anna with a small smile as he said that, and Anna grinned back at him. "Except it was relatively recently and I lived in Denmark. I'm also the youngest of thirteen brothers, I have a horse named Sitron, and... I enjoy long walks on the beach, for anyone who's interested."

Hans sat down with a smug grin that Kristoff simultaneously was drawn to and wanted to smack off of his face. He'd only spoken a good thirty seconds and Kristoff already found something off putting about him—maybe it was how he already had sideburns like that. Or how he dressed like he was just showing off how rich he was. Or maybe it was that with a few words he'd already had Anna leaning over in her desk to him saying in a very quiet squeal, "Oh man,  _I'm_  interested..."

Judging by the reaction of the rest of the class, it seemed pretty evenly split between those who thought Hans was cool and those who reduced him to being a "pretty-boy."

He  _was_  rather pretty.

And he seemed like he knew it all too well. In fact, within the next ten minutes alone, Kristoff saw him check his reflection in the reflection of his phone twice. Hans didn't even adjust his hair or anything, he merely grinned and then put his phone down.

And then Kristoff realized that he was looking over at the guy more than Anna was, and stopped.

Mr. Steffe introduced them to the course and asked them questions to see how much they already knew—and for almost every single one, Anna raised her hand. She was picked for about a third of them and had all of them right, and after every new question that she answered correctly, more people starting looking at her. Either with an expression that read " _goddamn know-it-all_ " or " _stop raising your hand that obnoxiously_ " or " _damn, girl_." Hans wasn't hiding his impressed glances whatsoever, which made Anna more motivated to answer and Kristoff honestly more suspicious. He wasn't even entirely sure  _why_ ; something just didn't sit right with him.

Maybe he was overreacting due to jealousy, an annoying part of him suggested to the rest of him. ( _Protectiveness_  is what he preferred to call it, though.) And maybe Kristoff needed to get to know the guy before making any decisions. They would have almost every class together for the whole rest of the year, so he had plenty of time.

The remainder of the forty-five minute class period went by much too fast for Anna, and the opposite for Kristoff. Too much time spent in his mind instead of the review lesson had made it felt longer. Along with how many times he had glanced over to Hans and caught him glancing over at his best friend. Though he could have sworn, several times, that a look was meant for him instead.

* * *

 

English proved to be not all that eventful, though Anna did manage enough courage to lean over and tell Hans that for someone who'd only just moved from Denmark, he spoke with a very good American accent, to which he gave her a small smile and a thanks. Kristoff, once again, watched from the side, and he wondered if Hans was going to sit close to them in every class they had.

Once they got to Art, it seemed that that was how it was going so far. There were wide tables shoved together in rows instead of various small desks, and Hans took a seat directly across from where Kristoff and Anna chose to sit. Looked like he wasn't even trying to be discreet anymore. Anna was absolutely delighted, and Kristoff narrowed his eyes and became more wary of the situation. He didn't even really try to completely hide his distrust and general dislike for the guy, and on an impulse, couldn't help but asking out of the blue—

"Why are you wearing an ascot to school?"

Anna threw him a look as though to chastise him for being rude (she was one to talk, though, as she probably knew less about what was considered rude and what wasn't), but Hans looked more amused than anything.

"Because I like it," he answered politely. Then he gave a charming smile and added, "And because it's fancy and wearing fancy clothes gives me a sense of superiority."

The blunt honesty elicited fairly confused emotions from them—from Kristoff, at least. Anna found it attractive, no doubt, and she had to try hard not to grin like an idiot. Kristoff was pretty sure she had probably mistaken that for sarcasm or just as a joke in general, though, and he had a hard time deciding whether the confidence was attractive or if it disgusted him.

 _I knew it,_  he decided.  _Fucking narcissist._  Though it really wasn't a decision because he still didn't know how he should feel about it.

"It looks really nice on you," Anna practically squeaked out after several seconds of contemplating whether or not she should say anything. "I mean, you make it work. I don't think a lot of people could."

There was a twinge of  _something_  that Kristoff couldn't quite place in Hans's eyes before he seemed to look absolutely delighted at the attention he was getting. He thanked her and right then, the bell rang and the teacher wrote her name—Mrs. Messick—on the blackboard. She explained to them that she was a very laid-back teacher and that she would basically treat them all like adults and let them do whatever so long as they were doing whatever project they were working on. At that, Kristoff was pretty sure he heard something like a satisfied hum from Hans, but he couldn't be sure.

Only when she called role did it occur to Anna that there were plenty of people in here who weren't in their previous two classes, and she realized that it was rather lucky that Hans had ended up in the elective with them. Probably fate, in fact. Clearly all the chances were putting them together—and God, he was _hot_ , so why not?

"For your very first assignment, I want you all to draw a picture of your hand," the teacher told them. "Don't be uncreative and just draw it flat out—put it in a different position, take a picture with your phone for reference if you like, and draw it as realistically as you can. A lot of people have trouble drawing hands and I feel like this will be a good practice."

It turned out that Anna was a horrible artist. The whole ' _just draw what you see_ ' thing simply did not work for her, and she ended up erasing more often than she was drawing and just screwing up proportions to the point that it was embarrassing. But when she was looking particularly frustrated, Hans would look over and say that it wasn't nearly as bad as she thought it was. Which for some reason made Kristoff angrier than before.

Possibly because the kindness of that sort of reassurance just didn't seem believable coming from him.

Anna found it perfectly believable, though, and she was visibly feeling better about her drawing. Though Kristoff could honestly look at it and think to himself that it was definitely not the best. He wasn't going to crush her feelings by telling her the truth, though.

Hans's art skills were by far much better than either of theirs, as several people ended up crowding around him at one point to tell him how amazingly realistic his hand drawing was, including the teacher. He was significantly less polite with them as he'd been when he'd thanked Anna, practically waving them off with an "I know" instead of proper thank-yous. That made Kristoff even angrier, though he could be fairly sure that it was more jealousy than anything.

Throughout the class period, Anna and Hans talked while Kristoff sat by, occasionally adding something to the conversation only out of spite—and each time Anna didn't seem to notice while Hans smirked at him or gave a snide response. It got to the point that it was so obviously flirting between them (even Anna, with her social ineptitude, was aware of it), and Kristoff was getting visibly uncomfortable and wanted to leave.

Whether he was jealous of Hans or otherwise, though, he was unsure of.

No one finished their drawings by the end of the class, not even Hans, and Mrs. Messick told them all to get a folder and put them away to continue working on the next day. Kristoff walked out of the classroom in a huff and before anyone else, and Anna had to jog a little to catch up with him.

"What is with you?" She furrowed her brow and gave him a dirty look, making a point of swinging her arms dramatically as she walked next to him. He learned right then to stop being surprised that she could actually sense when he was in a mood instead of just being so inept that she just went along with it.

"Well, I dunno—maybe that you talked to  _Hans_  the whole class and barely at all to me," he admitted, slightly surprised at himself that he didn't just make up an entirely different excuse or act stubborn and refuse to give a real answer at all. When he made an exasperated gesture and looked at her, the look she was returning him was one of mixed pity and amusement.

"What, are you jealous?" she asked, half-serious—and Kristoff reacted possibly too soon and too defensively, saying,

"No, I'm not!—I just... felt left out, I guess." Nice save, there. "It's kind of annoying to be ignored... but then of course you know what that's like and I really shouldn't be complaining, and—shit, you know what, I'll just shut up now."

Kristoff resolved to only look straight ahead of him to stay safe from more embarrassment, but he couldn't help but let his eyes stray to the side when he heard his best friend let out a soft giggle.

"What?"

"It's fine, don't worry about it, Krissy-boy." He frowned, as he really didn't like being called that nickname (which of course was the reason she'd just used it to make fun of him, but still), but was relieved. "I'll try not to leave you out of things.  _But_ _—_ can you really blame me? Hans and I definitely have something going here."

At that, Kristoff decided to just huff a vague agreement instead of saying anything.

* * *

 

Surprisingly enough, despite Anna's homeschooling, math was still not her strong suit. So other than art, Geometry was one thing Kristoff felt sure he would be better at than her. And he probably should have felt bad for gloating, but it didn't seem to hurt her feelings and it earned him a smirk across the aisle from Hans that he honestly couldn't say he didn't like.

At first, at least.

And then he remembered that Hans's apparent narcissism wasn't something to admire and that he shouldn't be flattered when someone in love with himself is impressed with him. He really just shouldn't.

Kristoff also learned that Hans was apparently very irritable because he kept muttering answers along with slurs under his breath when people answered practice questions incorrectly. When he pointed this out to Anna, all she said was "That just means he's smart—even better!"

They actually had assigned seats in Study Hall, so Hans was actually put behind the both of them—but then Kristoff and Anna were also sitting a few seats away, so there was that. It  _was_  supposed to be a class just for catching up on work, anyway, so they figured they could actually use it for its intended purpose.

When lunchtime came around Kristoff was already thinking that if that Danish douchebag decided to sit with them he would probably say a few choice curse words (or maybe he wouldn't, and he'd sit there and endure it and pretend he wasn't horribly ambivalent on the inside over whether it was Anna or Hans he was jealous of). But then, as he and Anna exited the line with their trays of food, she pointed out a spot of auburn hair in the mess of blondes.

"Oh, Hans is eating alone—we should go sit with him."

Putting an arm out to stop her from walking in Hans's direction, Kristoff frowned. "Do we have to?"

Anna raised an eyebrow at him. "What, do you not like him?"

"I—" He didn't know how to answer that. "Not really."

"You've only just met him!" she countered. "Besides, you and I both know what it's like to be alone for a long time, and he doesn't seem to have made any other friends. So—"

"What if he's alone by choice, just like I used to be?"

"He sat with us in Art, so I doubt it."

"But—"

"You know what, if you don't want to sit with him you don't have to, but I am."

She walked away and Kristoff barely had to consider his options before relenting and following her to Hans's table.

As their trays hit the table, Hans glanced up from his food, seemingly having expected them. "Oh, hey."

"Hey!" Anna smiled, as though she and Hans had been friends a while. But his eyes shifted over to Kristoff and lingered on him, so he felt put on the spot and obligated to greet him too.

"...Hey."

And then Hans's eyes stayed on him.

"You know," he said, leaning forward with his head propped up with one hand under his chin, "I've been talking a lot to Anna, but I don't think I heard her mention your name. And if she did, I apologize, because I forgot it."

The pure charm in Hans's tone made him feel like there was something lodged in the base of his throat for a moment. It was like looking straight into the eyes of a venomous snake—terrifying, yet somehow thrilling.

"Kristoff," he told him, trying not to let his wariness go. There was a quirk at the edge of Hans's lips and then he stuck out his hand, so Kristoff took it with an odd look (because people generally just didn't do that here, especially not teenagers) but a firm grip. It was unsurprisingly soft, but not all that much smaller than his own.

He could have sworn that he felt Hans swipe a lingering finger over his wrist as he pulled his hand away, but he decided it would be too awkward to say anything. Meanwhile Anna looked delighted that the two of them seemed to be becoming friends and, after she finished the first bite of the cheeseburger she'd gotten for lunch, promptly started a conversation that was meant to include the both of them.

When they were mostly finished eating, Anna decided to ask Hans how he liked it at this school.

"Well, it's definitely different than Denmark," he retorted with a laugh, glancing around the lunchroom in what looked like mild disgust. "Everyone here but you two seem pretty much... I dunno, like hicks? And a lot of them look like they do drugs, probably, since there's nothing else to do for about an hour's drive. But I wouldn't expect much more from a backwater town like this."

"You'll get used to it soon enough, pretty-boy," Kristoff laughed—but then he couldn't believe he'd actually said that out loud, and he was about to get embarrassed (but most certainly not apologize) when—

"I take that as a compliment, for the record," Hans said to counter Anna's annoyed look at Kristoff, thus confirming his assumptions from earlier. "I am a  _very_  pretty boy. I'm the prettiest boy you've ever seen."

"You really are," Anna agreed—and then she immediately realized what she'd said and looked briefly shocked with herself. "I mean—what?"

Hans merely smiled at her, and Kristoff was too busy being glad that  _he_  hadn't been the one to say that to care about the flirting between them.

* * *

 

Kristoff wished that he could somehow temporarily remove his eyes for every seventh period of the day. Because Hans's P.E. shorts only reached his mid-thigh and he had  _very_  toned legs.

Arguably so did he, but looking in Hans's direction became distressing for several reasons. One of them was that Kristoff had now also caught a glimpse of him in nothing but underwear in the locker room and knew what he looked like half-naked. With the loose white shirts they all had to wear, Hans seemed to also have been hiding fairly muscled arms under the sleeves of his button-up shirt and was now getting even more attention from the girls than before.

As they were told to stretch and do push-ups and the like, Hans also threw a lot more smiles Anna's way, and she smiled and giggled in return in return. Kristoff also noticed her waving to him several times, and going up to him first once they were given time to use the gym freely instead of her best friend.

"What was that all about?" he asked dryly when Anna came back over to him with the biggest ever smile on her face.

For a few seconds, she was silent and it seemed all she could do was smile, but then she gave a small, excited jump where she stood and told him—"Hans asked me to be his girlfriend!"

"Hold on—what?"

"And I said yes!"

Kristoff furrowed his brow and looked at her with obvious concern. "He asked you just now?"

"Yes—well, no, he asked me earlier. On a piece of paper." Anna immediately reached into her pocket to fish out a folded-up piece of notebook paper, which she then handed to him. Kristoff opened it slowly and saw that it read ' _Can I ask something crazy? Will you be my girlfriend?_ _—_ _Hans_ '. His concern grew deeper. "It's so sweet, isn't it? He put it in my notebook in Biology and I only noticed it once we were leaving, so just now I went and told him yes."

She just seemed so happy, and Kristoff didn't want to make her upset, but... the whole thing was kind of unsettling.

"Don't you think that's kind of weird?" he finally said, handing her the note back and trying not to sound judgemental or make her angry. "You've only known him for a day."

"Yeah, but—" Anna dropped her arms to her sides and looked over at Hans, who was playing two-on-two basketball with a couple other guys and a girl, and smiled and sighed dreamily. "He's just so nice! And he's funny and attractive and we can already finish each other's sentences—it's like fate, you know?"

Kristoff simply stared at her for a moment, trying to decide the best plan of action. All things aside, he knew he didn't want his best friend to go and get a boyfriend on the first day of school—the guy that seemed so off-putting to him, no less.

"Okay, frankly, I think this is pretty crazy. At least  _get to know_  the guy first. Be friends for a while and go on a few dates and see if he's secretly a douchebag or not. What do you even know about him?"

That question seemed to stump her for a moment, and then she stumbled out an answer—"I know enough! There are plenty of things I don't know about you, either."

"Yeah, and that's why I'm not your boyfriend."

There was a sudden air of  _I really can't believe you just said that_  and  _Why the fuck did I just say that?_  Anna's hands were balled in tiny fists at her sides now, and whatever ambiguous feelings between them that had been there were bubbling up and neither of them really had any idea what to do about it.

"Look, I didn't mean it like that—"

"No, you did. You're not comfortable telling me a lot of things, and I get that, and that's why we're just friends. But you clearly only have platonic feelings so you have no right to be jealous either—Hans is my boyfriend and as my best friend you have to just deal with it. And... and now I'm gonna leave before I start crying."

He watched her storm away—not toward Hans, but towards the wall where she sat down with her knees up to her chest and had a couple other girls immediately approach her, probably to ask what had just happened. Kristoff was left standing in the middle of the gym with nothing to do but glare in Hans's direction and then walk off to the opposite wall.

On the way, he couldn't help but notice that Hans threw him a look that was neither questioning nor malice for seemingly having hurt the feelings of his girlfriend. It was something else altogether, and as he watched the guy walk over to Anna, he couldn't for the life of him figure out what it was.


	3. Don't trust him

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You can touch. It's okay to be attracted to me—everyone is."

It was impossible to avoid each other when they were being driven home by Anna's mother together, so Kristoff figured he ought to apologize as soon as possible, whether he truly meant it or not. If only to keep things from getting awkward or distant between them... and to keep her parents from hating him once they noticed the contempt between them.

By the end of the day Anna was walking out of the school with Hans, their hands clasped between them (which was kind of awkward since she was significantly shorter than him and had a much smaller hand). And Kristoff was trailing behind from the end-of-day Study Hall, having not spoken to either of them since P.E. because of what happened. He waited for Hans to tell her goodbye, at which he thankfully did not bend down to kiss her but merely waved, and leave. Then he promptly quickened his pace to walk right next to her.

"Hey."

Anna noticed the shadow he made and looked up before he said anything.

"Kristoff, listen—"

"I wanted to say I'm sorry," he interjected, and whatever Anna had been about to say, she seemed confused but relieved and raised an eyebrow at him. He stopped walking to face her and sighed. "I... I guess I overreacted a little? And I honestly still don't really trust Hans, but I really didn't mean what I said and I want us to still be best friends." There was a long pause where they just stared at each other, and then finally—"If he makes you happy then I'm happy, okay?"

There was something fixed and something lost with his apology, but Anna accepted it. The notion that Kristoff might only have been saying it so she wouldn't break off their friendship or that she would forgive him faster didn't cross her mind due to her lack of other friends and experiences, so it was barely a second later that she smiled stepped forward to hug him. Her head only reached the middle of his chest, and it was nice and warm and exactly the sort of thing that almost made her regret dating Hans. But then, of course, it just never would have worked out with her and Kristoff. He didn't like her that way— _that_ , she was sure of at this point.

"Okay," she said when she pulled away, barely allowing him time to wrap his arms around her tiny waist. "I kind of overreacted too, so. But I really don't get why you don't trust him—he's basically perfect in every way, I mean..."

Before she could start listing all the "perfect" things about Hans, Kristoff had a brief internal panic before noticing her parents' car and pointing it out so they could just go home.

The car ride was slightly tense if only for both Anna and Kristoff wondering if this was right—if he should have accepted her subtle advances earlier on and let this become something romantic, if he should have admitted that he had wanted her to be his girlfriend before, today. If Anna should have refused Hans in favor of her best friend. Whether the other actually felt that way about them or not. At this point they'd thought that they could be entirely sure, but then not so much once the car doors closed.

Anna personally felt bad because she knew that it would be hard for Kristoff to find a girlfriend considering how he said everyone else treated him, and yet she had gotten a boyfriend on the first day. She figured at the very least she could find someone who secretly harbored a crush on him; there had to be  _someone_. Because mixed possibly-romantic feelings aside, Kristoff was just plain  _hot_. All the things that made him weird were completely worth it.

And then Kristoff felt slightly bad because there was pretty obviously something unexpectedly bad about Hans beneath the surface and he was letting his best friend date him. He'd have to find some way to make her see what was wrong with him without breaking her heart—but of course he couldn't do that without finding out exactly what it was himself. He wasn't even entirely sure how he could tell, he just... did. Maybe it was something about the look in his eyes.

For all of his attractiveness and fancy dress and charming smile and beautiful voice— _alright, you need to stop_ —there was something distinctly hollow underneath Hans's exterior. Kristoff didn't know quite what that meant other than that when he looked at him, he didn't see something one-hundred percent human. And yet he still found himself attracted.

But it was mostly physical as far as he could tell, so that wasn't really a problem, was it? He wasn't just going to overlook everything because the guy was hot.

That seemed to be what Anna was doing, though. Or that was what Kristoff guessed. The fact of the matter was that Anna had minimal experience with romance and had no idea how to tell that this was a suspicious situation.

Then again, neither had Kristoff. He supposed he just had an inherent sixth sense about this sort of thing. Meanwhile he did not have any kind of sense about how Anna was feeling, and how once he was dropped off at his house she really started thinking about him and how she felt about him and how he felt about  _her_.

 _If Kristoff really felt that way, he would have said something,_  was the decision she came to.  _He had a chance to say "no, I think_ I _should be your boyfriend instead," and instead he directly said that he didn't want to._

Of course she was still somewhat conflicted, but she could recognize that those feelings were irrational.

"You're awfully quiet." Her mother broke her out of her thoughts once they pulled into their driveway. "Did you have a good first day of school?"

It was as though she had only just remembered, and then she couldn't shut up for the next twenty minutes.

* * *

Hans kissed her on the cheek when he saw her the next morning, and Kristoff took a bit of a step back and coughed awkwardly. He couldn't help but notice just how much bigger Hans was than her—and it wasn't so much that Hans was big, because he wasn't, but just that Anna was so small. Maybe Hans had a thing about size differences.

Instead of ignoring his obvious awkwardness like Anna did (who was just too busy blushing from the cheek-kiss), Hans outwardly noticed it and stepped forward, away from his girlfriend, with a grin.

"Sorry, did you want one too?" he asked in fake seriousness, stepping forward again and grabbing Kristoff's jaw so he could smack a kiss to his cheek before he could do anything about it. Except it wasn't really a smack because it kind of lingered there, possibly longer than he'd kissed Anna.

Hans immediately laughed once he let go and Anna was giggling too, more at Kristoff's flustered expression than anything. He found it slightly odd that she didn't think anything of it except that it was funny how red Kristoff's face was getting.

What was he supposed to say to that? Hans's sideburns had brushed his face a bit and his hands had been on his jaw, and all things considered, it seemed that so far he had been more intimate with him than Anna had. Only slightly, though.

After several seconds of him trying to stop looking so awkward, Kristoff wiped his cheek and frowned at the both of them. Anna laughed again and Hans just gave him a smirk that said something entirely different.

 _You did that on purpose, you absolute bastard,_  Kristoff realized.

 _I know,_  his smirk seemed to say.

"We should get to class," Anna suggested, completely unaware.

As expected, Hans sat closer to them now, as there were no assigned seats and none of their teachers had told them that the seats they had taken yesterday would be permanent for the year. He sat directly behind Anna in History and several other classes, and Kristoff couldn't help but wonder if he had done so to make sure that his girlfriend didn't see him throw glances and smirks at her best friend several times throughout the class.

Of course, Kristoff caught them, and Hans didn't seem to care. But he also didn't offer any explanation at any point during the day, and he was very tempted to get him away from Anna just to ask him what the hell his deal was—but he decided against it for fear of whatever could possibly happen. Well, not necessarily  _fear_. He just didn't want to.

Meanwhile Kristoff still had to sit back and watch them flirt and make goo-goo eyes at each other, and he had to hold back his comments and deal with being a sort of third wheel without complaint. For the most part he just tried to avoid looking (and maybe he could just pretend it wasn't happening), but one thing he did notice was that whatever flirty expression or charming smile Hans was holding while talking to Anna, it disappeared once she looked away. Not even like it slowly faded away, but it just immediately disappeared. And then it returned once she looked at him again.

He didn't know quite what it meant, but he stored it in his mental list of  _reasons not to trust Hans all the same_.

The first time that day that Hans was absent from their trio (which was after school when he left them to go home), Anna brought him up again.

"Hans seems to like you."

That nearly startled him to the point of jumping where he stood, and Kristoff had to consciously try not to seem weird about it. "What?"

"Well, I mean, he does like you," Anna corrected herself, not noticing her friend's suddenly odd demeanor at all. "He told me so. He wants to be your friend and all you do is scowl at him." She huffed and frowned up at Kristoff, feeling sorry for her boyfriend.

The first thing that ran through Kristoff's mind was  _Bull. Shit._

"Yeah, well, that's because I don't like him," he told her flatly, folding his arms. "And why would he want to be  _my_  friend? He's rich and snobby and probably speaks ten different languages because of whatever private school he went to in Denmark—and I'm this huge awkward guy who talks to his dog and does nothing but chores and has only ever lived in this tiny-ass town with no friends until now."

"Well, he doesn't know you talk to your dog." She folded her arms to mirror him and tried not to smile. "And he doesn't have any other friends here, either! What reason has he even given you to not like him?"

Kristoff sniffed. He wished it was easier to explain, that it was something as simple as Hans being an asshole or having directly insulted him. And he frowned and thought as hard as he could to come up with something solid against him. finally groaning in defeat and just explaining—"It's just the way he acts, okay? He's clearly full of himself, and... I don't know. There's just something off about him. And you  _know_  I have trust issues. It took me a couple days to start trusting you, even—"

"Yeah, and you eventually did!" she countered. "You went from disliking me to us becoming best friends, so there's no reason it can't happen with Hans. And... I mean, if for no other reason, do it for me? He's my boyfriend and you're my best friend and nothing's going to change that, so the least you can do is try to get along with him."

He had to admit that she had a point there, but he still didn't trust Hans, and he didn't see it anything similar to how he had come to trust Anna. Her worst trait was her constant state of enthusiasm, and that was just annoying. Hans's worst trait so far was that he had no obvious one, which was unsettling.

But Kristoff once again found himself backed into a corner and with no option but to agree if only to keep Anna from getting rightfully upset. He understood, really. He just didn't want to be friends with Hans.

"Fine."

* * *

No one but Anna expected a knock at the door later that evening. She was out of her room and down the stairs before anyone else could even start walking to the door, and naturally her parents assumed it must have been Kristoff.

"Hans!" she beamed, overly happy to see him. He returned the smile. "Hey-come in."

"Did your parents know that I'd be coming?" he asked with a look of very slight concern as he stepped inside, unconsciously brushing off his jacket.

"Nah, I figured I could surprise them. Do you want to take off your coat?"

He then looked slightly more concerned, but Anna didn't seem to notice. "It's technically a jacket, actually," Hans corrected her. "There's a difference. And no, I'll keep it on. It's cold."

She didn't find it that cold—she was in a t-shirt and felt fine—but whatever. Anna gave a small shrug and then grabbed his hand, pulling him forward and past the open arch into the kitchen.

"Who was that at the door—oh." Her father turned around from the stove, where he was watching the soup boil because it was his turn to make dinner tonight. His eyes fell upon Hans, who immediately stood up straighter and smiled as genuinely as he could manage. He couldn't help but smile in greeting. "Who's this, Anna?"

"Oh—uh..." Anna suddenly felt awkward and slightly scared, but she tried to sound more confident. "Dad, I'd like you to meet Hans, my boyfriend."

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Andersen," said Hans at once, before the man could say anything, holding his hand out to shake.

Without stepping forward to grab it immediately (which both of them understood, really), he raised both eyebrows and looked between them. "You've got a boyfriend, already? You've only been in school for two days... Damn, I should have worried about her attracting all the boys once she went into public school," he said to Hans. Her father gave a hearty laugh and finally shook his hand, and both of them were significantly relieved.

Unsurprisingly, he started asking Hans all sorts of questions, and then when Anna's mother came into the room there was yet another introduction and while Hans was too charming for his own good, she clearly felt weird about her daughter getting a boyfriend so quickly. They told her parents that it had been Anna's idea to introduce him to them so early, but Hans had been the one to indirectly place the idea in her mind. The sooner her family trusted him, the better.

He was invited to stay for dinner just as he'd expected, and so when Elsa came down from her bedroom there was yet another introduction to be made.

"I thought Kristoff was your boyfriend," she said to Anna immediately without shaking Hans's hand, and seemingly without any intention to. Her eyebrows knitted together and she gave him a brief, highly suspicious look.

"That's what I thought too, honestly," her mother added. "I mean, you told me about Hans yesterday, but... you and Kristoff have been friends all summer. Are you two alright?"

"Yes, Mom, of course," she sighed in slight exasperation. "Kristoff's my best friend. But Hans is my boyfriend—am I not allowed to have both?"

They agreed that of course she was, but having a boyfriend after knowing a guy for just a day was still weird to them. Though not nearly as weird to them as it was to Elsa, who seemed pretty anxious around him and didn't want to talk at all during dinner. Anna and her parents threw her concerned glances the whole time, hoping to God that she wouldn't have a breakdown, and while her parents definitely thought about it, it didn't cross Anna's mind even once that Hans was the reason for this.

It wasn't just that he was a new person—it was that he obviously just didn't sit right with her, even worse than it was with Kristoff. Even Hans could tell. He was charming and friendly and all the things that Kristoff was, but in an entirely different way. There was the fact that he had asked Anna to be his girlfriend after such a little span of time that was undoubtedly suspicious, and he had a feeling that Elsa could simply see through his exterior and that she genuinely hated what she saw.

But just like he did with everyone else, Hans could always just get her to trust him. She was important to Anna, so it was important to him that she not dislike him so much. Exhausting, though. He hated keeping up an act to more than one or two people at once.

"Listen, Elsa," he eventually began to say, setting down his spoon and drawing out what real sympathy he had to in order to make his expression one that seemed completely real. "I can tell that I make you uneasy and if you want me to leave, that's fine. I understand the anxiety thing and Anna cares very much about you, so I don't want to make you feel that way."

The dinner table was silent for a few seconds and then finally Elsa looked up from her plate and over to Anna.

"You told him?"

"No," Hans said before Anna could. "I just noticed on my own."

Another several seconds of silence, and apparent nervousness in everyone. Anna looked over and smiled at him, glad that he seemed to care this much, as did her parents.

"You can stay," Elsa said quietly, her expression softening. "I just feel like you're lying about every single thing that comes out of your mouth." The tone of those words was of questionable contempt, and everyone but Hans proceeded to stare at her as though she'd just said the rudest thing on earth. And really, it was rather rude.

"Elsa, come on, that's—"

Hans cut off her mother and said, sounding casual as he picked up a spoonful of soup, "A lot of people seem to feel that way. I don't take it personally."

And just as it always did, that raked in the sympathy.

Anna's eyebrows knitted together in brief sadness for him as she lightly touched his arm, and both she and Hans could tell that her parents were suddenly more okay with him. They probably saw a lonely boy in him—someone just like their daughter, deprived of human interaction and starving for a relationship with someone he could relate to. All of that wasn't necessarily true about him, but Hans was certainly good at making it seem that way.

Elsa was the only one who still didn't seem to trust him, and Hans couldn't blame her. Anyone who was smart shouldn't trust him. And he really did understand—on several levels, even. He knew what anxiety and paranoia was like and he knew how it felt to be completely separated from the rest of your family because it was simply impossible for them to understand. So he sympathized. And for a moment, he almost tricked himself into actually  _empathizing_.

When he finally left, it was with a few polite phrases of obligation that of course made Anna's parents trust him more and possibly made Elsa soften up (or harden). Anna was extremely relieved that it went well and kissed him on the cheek goodbye, and Hans was extremely relieved to be rid of her and wiped his cheek off with disgust once the door was closed.

Sometimes he wondered if this sort of thing was worth the exhaustion.

Hans stepped into his car and slammed the door, then immediately thought of Anna's attractive friend.  _Yeah, it is._

* * *

Upon hearing that Anna had already introduced Hans to her family, Kristoff held back the slew of comments that was rising behind his tongue. He simply nodded and neglected to tell her why you just  _weren't_ supposed to introduce your boyfriend to your parents that soon. Hell, she'd watched a lot of TV all those years of being home-schooled, hadn't she? So she really should have known.

Later on, though, Kristoff's jealousy and general emotional ambivalence had him inviting Anna to his own house, as in  _inside_  and not just his backyard. And he disguised it as asking her if she wanted to come over so they could get homework done together. Which wasn't even really a disguise because they really did have homework for at least three classes that they obviously shared.

"So I finally get to see your room?" was her immediate response, and she was amusingly enthusiastic about the suggestion.

Kristoff almost expected her to suggest that Hans come over as well so they could all work on homework together, and when she didn't, he supposed that he should give her more credit. Anna wasn't the most intelligent person he'd ever met (though they were fairly even on social abilities), but she was obviously smart enough to realize that he had trust issues too deep to allow someone he obviously didn't like come into his house when he hadn't even let in his best friend.

Anna's mother dropped them off at his house, and unbeknownst to her, Kristoff's heart was suddenly beating an off rhythm in his chest while they walked up to his front door. He was undeniably anxious about bringing someone home for the first time in years, and just as he'd worried, his parents were walking into the living room just as they went through the doorway.

"Kristoff—oh, is this Anna?" his mother said once she noticed that there were two teenagers coming into the house, looking pleasantly surprised. Rather than focusing on the fact that Kristoff had clearly talked about her, Anna gave the man and woman a look-over, as well as the rest of the house.

His parents were quite big people, not at all fit like Kristoff, and they absolutely radiated kindness. Also unlike him. In the face they also looked nothing like him, and for a moment it slipped Anna's mind that  _of course they don't_ — _he's adopted_.

The house seemed to fit Kristoff's style, though—it was rather homey and traditional, Sami decor on the walls as well as taxidermied squirrels and birds, and a potted plant at almost every corner. Pretty much everything looked home-made, and she didn't doubt that Kristoff's dad built most of the furniture himself.

"Uh—" Kristoff found himself suddenly more nervous than before, but that lasted for merely a second before he was able to speak. "Yeah. Mom, Dad, this is Anna—and Anna, this is Mr and Mrs. Bjorgman. Okay, now that that's over, we were just—"

He'd tried to make the introductions ironic and just go straight up to his room, but his parents were quick to stop him and greet Anna properly.

"It's wonderful to meet you, Anna," his father said as he held out his hand for her to shake, a smile stretching out his beard. "We've been waiting just about forever—most people don't wait this long to introduce their girlfriend to their parents, I don't think. But hey, Kristoff's always been pretty odd," he added with a laugh.

For a moment there was complete silence and Anna and Kristoff shared a mutual look of confusion while his parents simply smiled.

"We, uh. We're not dating, actually," Anna corrected him, looking amused. "We're just best friends. Why, did Kristoff tell you that we were—?"

"No, I swear I didn't!" Kristoff cut in, somewhat panicking to make sure she didn't get the wrong idea.

"But why not?" his mother asked, ignoring him. "I don't think anyone's been as close as you are to our Krissy—"

" _Mom_ , don't—"

"He's a bit weird, sure, but nothing a little love can't fix."

"Oh, um—"

Anna was cut off by his father, who tried to tell her how great of a man Kristoff was, and who was in turn interrupted by a shout of—

"She's got a boyfriend!"

Everyone looked at him. And no one could tell quite what Kristoff was feeling other than frustration about the situation. The silence seemed to prompt him to go on.

"...And it's not me, okay? Anna is dating someone else, and we're best friends. That's _it_. I don't have a girlfriend."

His parents seemed like they didn't entirely believe him, but they resigned themselves to not say anymore on the matter. As they finally started going up the stairs to his room, Kristoff's mother offered to bring them drinks and Anna politely accepted.

"Sorry about that," he told her at the top of the stairs, silently cursing the fact that his parents both worked at home.

* * *

Hans was significantly nicer to Kristoff than Kristoff was to him. Anna kept pointing it out and Kristoff kept making excuses, though once or twice it was almost as though whatever mask Hans put on started to fool him for a moment because he'd feel bad and sorry and want to make things right between them. And then he'd remember that oh wait, clearly there was something really off about this guy and he wasn't to be trusted.

He clearly wanted Kristoff to trust him, though. It got to a point that he seemed to want his trust and kindness more than Anna's. And he really had no idea how to define his best friend's relationship with her new boyfriend. Anna seemed happy, but the whole situation was confusing.

After about a week of trying and mostly failing to avoid him, Kristoff was finally roped into spending time with the guy.

They were paired together on a Biology project. Kristoff suspected bribery on Hans's part. But then he figured that he might just be flattering himself a bit too much—would anyone really pay off a teacher in order to spend time with  _him_? He didn't think anyone would risk making a threat either, though Hans certainly seemed like the type of guy to make them. He seemed like someone who was far scarier and more intimidating underneath his pretty face.

"Looks like you'll be coming over after school for the next couple days," Hans told him with a self-satisfied smirk on Monday when their names showed up on the board next to each other. Anna was put with a girl she'd probably talked to once or twice and who seemed nice enough. "I can drive you."

All Kristoff responded with was a grunt and a conflicted grimace, honestly not sure at all how he felt about this.

If they were just working together in class, that would be one thing. But it was such a small town that there was no reason to give students a lot of class time to finish a project when it was so easy for anyone to just walk to their partner's house to work on it. So now Anna would be making a new friend and Kristoff would be seeing the inside of Hans's car and house before his own girlfriend did.

Anna didn't mind not being paired up with either of them at all, and in fact was delighted that they were put together. Now they'd be forced to get to know each other more and to get along (both of them, at least, since Hans was already cooperating), and there wouldn't be any strife making problems between the three of them. She told Kristoff to try to loosen up. He just tightened up more.

Later that day when their group of three separated for Anna to go with the other girl, Heidi, and Kristoff to reluctantly follow Hans to his car, he felt like he was being bombarded with a whole new man.

Well, not whole new. But the guy's demeanor was very noticeably different once Anna was out of the vicinity. Kristoff didn't know exactly what that meant or how to describe it, so he didn't confront him with it or make any comments.

The only thing he said for the whole car ride was "I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you would be so clean." Because it was. No trash on the floor, no stains on the seats, and barely any dust on the dashboard.

"Yeah, I'm pretty high-maintenance," Hans replied casually, saying nothing else.

Kristoff sighed when the car stopped as though resigning to some cruel fate, and he clutched his backpack like a weapon. The house in front of him was bigger than his own, though the backyard was the same, and there was a stable in the far corner. Right as they stepped out, the resident of said stable trotted up to the fence and stuck its head towards Hans.

"You have a horse?" Kristoff couldn't help but say. Then he mentally punched himself because he figured Hans was going to tell him that that was a stupid question, and he honestly really did  _not_  want to seem stupid in front of him—

"His name is Sitron," Hans told him proudly, giving the first smile that he could actually be sure was one-hundred percent genuine. He slung his backpack over one shoulder and approached the fence to pat his horse on the nose and given him a brief hug around the neck. "I've had him since I was about ten. He's probably the only living thing that my father would ever trust me with."

That was a pretty weird thing to say, Kristoff figured, but he simply frowned as he followed him inside. He couldn't necessarily say that the clear luxuriousness of Hans's entire life made him jealous, but it did make him angry. It really wasn't fair that some kids had to grow up in orphanages while others could live in a place like this without earning it themselves.

"Who's this?" he heard seconds after the door closed, and then turned around to see someone who looked somewhat like Hans. Same eyes, same freckles, at least. He leaned against the wall and folded his arms with a malicious smile on his face—he said it nothing like Anna's father had. This guy could only be an older brother, and he wasn't pleasantly surprised or curious; he was  _taunting_ , and he made it seem like Hans didn't bring home many people. It made Kristoff weirdly angry.

Next to him, Hans scowled and decided to keep walking, briefly putting his hand on Kristoff's back to lead him with him. "My friend. We're gonna go work on a project together, so just leave us alone."

His bedroom was at the top of the stairs, and Kristoff traversed them with him while glancing back and forth between him and his older brother.

"Don't mind Anders," Hans advised when he noticed. He let go of a frustrated breath he'd been holding and dropped his backpack next to his bed. "He doesn't like me or anyone I bring home. Well—none of my brothers do, really. Just be wary of them in general."

He talked like he was expecting Kristoff to come over often, as he noticed with a curious frown. Hans immediately went to his closet and stood in front of the door for a moment, undoing his ascot and then stripping off his shirt. Kristoff understood that he probably wanted to change into something more comfortable now that they were home and they were both guys and he'd seen him shirtless before, but it still made him uncomfortable. If only for how hard it was not to look.

Though Hans fully expected him to look and didn't at all mind.

"...How many brothers do you have?" Kristoff finally thought to ask once Hans turned around with a t-shirt on.

"Twelve." He sounded like he had to answer that question a lot. "I'm the youngest."

"Oh. Wow."

"Yeah. Most of them are out of the house, at least."

That really sucked. The grimace that Hans gave him almost made Kristoff genuinely sad. Being the youngest was never good, and though he couldn't quite relate, he could still recognize how horrible that would be. For the moment, he mostly forgot how Hans behaved just about the rest of the time.

"You probably wish you were an only child," Kristoff figured out loud without thinking. Hans looked at him. "I grew up in an orphanage and no one was ever particularly nice to me, so I'm glad to be an only child, really." And then—

_Why. Did I say that._

He'd been angry when he'd admitted to Anna that he grew up an orphan. He hadn't wanted to tell that part of his past a pretty girl who'd seemed kind from the start. And just now, he'd told a guy he claimed not to trust after spending maybe ten minutes with him.

Kristoff tried not to seem shocked with himself, and Hans didn't seem to notice the inner turmoil. Or maybe he did and he just didn't care.

"I guess we should get started on the thing, then."

It was a pretty simple project on one of the organ systems which had been assigned to them—the nervous system. Honestly, neither of them knew why they were even being given two days to finish it. And then they figured it was to account for the general laziness of most teenagers and procrastination. Kristoff, at least, wanted to get it finished as soon as possible.

For a while they had the work pretty evenly split up, Kristoff drawing out the system on their posterboard and Hans researching the functions of the organs in the textbook—and a  _while_  was about ten minutes. And then things started getting somewhat less productive. Not because they were talking to each other about irrelevant topics, but because they continued to not talk to each other, and that in itself got distracting.

Kristoff kept unconsciously glancing in Hans's direction and found a smirk and a glint in his eyes almost every time. If his head was turned he found the other boy in a slightly more compromising position than before—shoulder muscles taut in an aesthetically gratifying way, ass practically in his face while Hans was bent over the edge of the bed to pick up a pencil (which seemed to happen too many times to all be accidents), and slivers of skin peeking through his slightly hiked-up shirt.

It was different than seeing Hans in the changing room, or in those particularly short gym shorts, or even having him kiss him on the cheek. These were smaller dips straight into his feelings, yet somehow stronger-this was just plain _teasing_. There was absolutely no way Hans wasn't doing this on purpose, and Kristoff suddenly hated him for basically forcing a boner out of him.

He didn't say anything, though. He even tried his best to not let any louder-than-normal breath leave his throat. And he tried to keep his eyes forward and on the poster so that maybe it would just go away, and maybe he could just ignore him until he finished and then he could go home. He couldn't be entirely sure if that was what he really wanted, but he was far too anxious to pursue something else.

On the other side of the bed, Hans pretty easily noticed that Kristoff's eyes weren't on him anymore. He moved his lips into a small pout of disappointment, and then promptly another smirk, proud of Kristoff for eventually resisting it. But of course now he had to find some other way of getting his attention, and it seemed to be the point where he would go all out. It was all or nothing.

So, still without the other boy's gaze on him, he slid off the side of the bed altogether and walked around to the other side, pulling his shirt off on the way. When he stood at the other side, Kristoff was still struggling to keep his eyes directly forward (but succeeding), so Hans simply pursed his lips and moved the poster and textbook away, then took the marker straight out of Kristoff's hand.

 _Now_  he was forced to look up. "What are you doing?"

Hans could hear the nervousness in his voice. It made him feel better, but at the same time he'd rather Kristoff not feel nervous about this. With just a smirk, he stepped onto the bed and let his knee dip for a moment, and then, still keeping eye-contact with him, he straddled his legs and sat straight in his lap.

_I-_

_He's_ —

Kristoff just stared and breathed. He didn't know whether to look at his chest or his face, and regardless it was making his heart race and his chest warmer than he ever could have thought it would get.

Hans stared back for several seconds before finally saying, "You can touch. It's okay to be attracted to me—everyone is."

When the boy beneath him could only stare in silence, Hans sighed inwardly and reached down to take one of Kristoff's hands and pull it up to his chest. He gently pulled the fingers apart and splayed Kristoff's hand out over one side of his chest, palm over his nipple and fingertips reaching his collarbone. It was somewhat difficult himself not to let out a desperate sigh or anything similar to  _touch me_.

It took a moment for Kristoff to register where his hand was.

And how great it felt under his hand.

And how much  _more_  he wanted to touch.

After an experimental grope and a brief lip-bite from Hans, Kristoff's other hand hesitantly went to his hair, his eyes locked questioningly on Hans's, and pulled. So Hans followed suit and dipped down and kissed him—more like smashed their lips together, clumsily and harshly in a way that knocked his jaw against his and made their noses squish together for a moment. But it was exactly the sort of thing that he liked, and clearly it was what Kristoff wanted too because his fist in his hair grew tighter and a deep groan came from the back of his throat, and his hand on Hans's chest was clutching so hard it almost hurt.

 _Oh God, oh God_ —

Kristoff's pants grew tighter and his face grew warmer, his head subsequently feeling hazier and making him wonder if this was real. Every ounce of logic in him told him that it was, but it was still so surreal, and it was almost like they were floating when he let himself fall back and pulled Hans on top of him. Now his whole body was flushing and there was another body on top of his, and a hand roaming under his shirt, and he was much too willing to let it go as far as it wanted.

And then all at once, it occurred to him.

His eyes shot open and his lips stopped moving, and Hans was already starting to realize it when he pushed him away.

He was utterly disheveled, his hand still around Kristoff's side, eyes full of lust and hair far from neat. Kristoff almost decided to just not say a thing and to instead start kissing him again. Almost.

"But—" That came out far breathier than he'd expected. Far more exhausted. Confusion blurred his thoughts for a moment. "...What about Anna?"

There was barely enough pause for Hans to knit his eyebrows together before he said, breathing just the same, "Are you really bringing  _her_  up at a time like this?"

Right then, he grabbed Kristoff by the sides and flipped them over so that he was hovering over him instead (just the way he liked it, really). The surprise of it was ridiculously arousing, and there was such a sudden rush of attraction that Kristoff couldn't help but just attaching their lips again.

And then he was pushed up again so Hans could pull off his shirt—his layers, actually—which he was all too eager to do get rid of. It was clear to even the room itself that the attraction between them had begun long before today and that no one was more eager to resolve it than Kristoff. In his state he could only vaguely register how clearly something was wrong with Anna and Hans's relationship, but he found himself quite unable to care about it right then.

Especially when Hans's erection was just as obvious as his and pressing hard and fast into his thigh.

That was when he started grinding his hips like no tomorrow, and when Hans tried immensely to keep his eyes open while he rutted his own hips upward and dug his fingernails into Kristoff's shoulders. He wanted to see his face when he came—more importantly, when Hans  _made_  him come. When Hans proved to be the perfect thing for Kristoff to rub his dick on.

Minutes later there was the broken sound of Hans's name from Kristoff's throat, and everything got a little tighter while Hans watched the dynamic of his face: violent, aggressive, then very suddenly euphoric and strained when he let out the final, loud groan of indiscernible context.

It could have been his name. It could have been a swear. Possibly both. But whatever it was, it was hot enough that that he came in his pants underneath the dying orgasm of the boy above him. The rocking of their hips slowed to a stop until the only movement left was their chests pushing against each other while they caught their breath.

Kristoff remained on top of Hans for a minute before rolling off. And Hans almost immediately rolled over onto his side, a lazy grin sliding onto his face and his hand sliding onto Kristoff's chest.


End file.
